On Tuesday 13 May 2025, at 6 p.m., at the Sala Atti ‘Arduino Agnelli’ of the Department of Humanities, in Androna Campo Marzio 10, there will be the Presentation of Marco Fontana's book "Auerbach versus Bachtin. Il serio, il comico e la teoria del romanzo" (2025).

Following the dialogue between Laurent Feneyrou and Elvio Guagnini on the Triestiana publishing house, the ‘SpringBookS. Dialogues of literary theory and cultural criticism’ will continue on Tuesday 13 May with a meeting with Marco Fontana, who will present his book "Auerbach versus Bachtin. Il serio, il comico e la teoria del romanzo" (Editpress, 2025). The essay compares the positions of Auerbach and Bachtin on the role of the comic in the modern novel and its relationship with the representation of the bourgeois class. In the forms of the novel that became established during the 19th century, Auerbach sees the full realisation of the serious representation of middle and lower-class characters, while Bachtin identifies the disappearance of the carnivalesque in capitalist society. Through the comparison and interaction between the positions of the two critics, Fontana offers an original reading of the novel in the ‘serious century’ and the way the bourgeoisie appears in it.

Marco Fontana graduated in Modern Literature at the University of Siena after completing his three-year studies at the University of Trieste. He is currently doing a PhD at Ca' Foscari University in Venice, where he studies the relationship between the bourgeois class and the modern novel.

Tommaso Dal Monte, PhD student in Linguistic and Literary Studies at the University of Udine-Trieste, will dialogue with the author.

"SpringBookS. Dialogues of literary theory and cultural criticism" is a series of events curated by Sergia Adamo, Francesca D'Alessio, Tommaso Dal Monte and Iwan Paolini. The review will continue with further meetings until 23 June. The guests of the initiative will discuss their publishing activities, publications and research works, all works that compare the present with the thought of some of the leading names of the 20th century literary and cultural scene, from Auerbach to Haraway, from Pasolini to Lonzi.